


Night

by starlightwalking



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, The Empty Grave Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 18:12:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12174075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: When Holly came home from the longest night of her life, her apartment was empty.





	Night

**Author's Note:**

> Two fics in one day? What is this??  
> This is kind of a spin off of the fic I posted earlier today, Mostly. I almost started writing this scene in that fic, but then I decided it needed its own story.  
> Layla is my OC for Holly's girlfriend; her name means "Night", which I picked because I thought it contrasted nicely with Lucy's name, which means "Light". But it also fit the tone and symbolism of this fic, so that's nice.  
> Thanks for reading and commenting!

When Holly came home from the longest night of her life, her apartment was empty.

She rubbed her eyes, too exhausted to think. She didn't bother to flick on the light. Her corner of the room was impeccably clean and neatly organized, but despite herself she couldn't help but flop down on her bed and drop her coat and rapier messily on the floor.

She'd missed her bed. Sleeping at Portland Row wasn't bad, but there was nothing like home.

She laid on the bed for at least an hour, letting her mind think of nothing in particular after the horrifying events of the past few days. Weeks. Months. Years.

No, she wasn't going to think about it. There would be time for that later. For now, she was just going to lie here.

The other bed in the room was not nearly as orderly as Holly's own. Layla Tahan, her roommate, was as messy as Holly was neat. This had endlessly frustrated her at first, though she tried to hide it behind a smiling face, but eventually she and Layla had come to an understanding about each other's habits.

Holly smiled at the thought of Layla. She was a good friend, and a good roommate. Holly's life had been so busy lately that she'd scarcely thought of Layla, and now she worried a little that Layla had been anxious about her being gone.

Holly had developed a bit of a crush on Layla in the past few months. Ever since Layla had broken up with her last girlfriend, Holly had only grown closer to her, and her feelings more intense. It was doubtful Layla liked her the same way, however. At least, that's what Holly tried to tell herself in moments like this.

She was suddenly overcome by a sweeping wave of longing. She  _missed_  Layla. It had been days since she'd last seen her, longer since they'd had a proper conversation. With Holly's job at Lockwood & Co. and Layla's job at DEPRAC, they both worked late nights and were often too tired to exchange anything other than a mumbled request to turn the light off.

Holly sat up slowly, stretching her arms. "Ugh," she muttered. She was sore from fighting her way out of the Fittes House and taking a trip through the Other Side. What a wild night.

Holly didn't tell Layla much about what Lockwood and Co. got up to outside of their regular cases, and she had a feeling Layla wouldn't believe much of it. But right now, all she wanted to do was tell her everything.

Where  _was_  Layla?

It was the middle of the day, though the room was dark and the curtains drawn. Holly frowned. Perhaps Layla was out working with DEPRAC, cleaning up the mess that Marissa Fittes and the Orpheus Society had left behind. Surely by now she would have heard who'd started it, and had a worried thought about Holly's wellbeing... Or maybe not. Despite Holly's crush, she and Layla were not  _that_  close.

But in the back of her mind she remembered days in the sun, in happier times, when she and Layla had gone out for a summer's afternoon in the park together, eating snow cones and watching people walk their dogs. She remembered smiling and complimenting Layla after she'd dyed her hair blue, something the more conservative and proper Holly would never do, but that Layla pulled off beautifully.

She remembered Layla nervously reading her the poetry she'd written and singing her songs in Arabic, her father's tongue, as she practiced and dreamed of being an artist one day. She remembered helping Layla pick out a dress for a fancy DEPRAC event, before finally encouraging her just to wear a suit that she might feel more comfortable in. She remembered confessing her crush on her colleague Lucy to Layla, and Layla's condolences and comfort.

She remembered holding Layla in her arms the night she'd come home sobbing after her breakup, comforting her friend and realizing she was a little bit in love. And Holly admitted to herself that perhaps she and Layla were closer than the logical part of her mind wanted to be.

In that moment, Holly wanted to see Layla more than anything in the world. After everything that had happened, she needed someone to talk to, and after coming so close to death—in more ways than one—she had nothing to lose by confessing her feelings.

Fretfully, Holly got up and began tidying her already hyper-clean corner of the room. After an hour of that, she migrated to Layla's side of the room, making her bed and folding her clothes and dusting her nightstand. She didn't touch any of her other belongings out of respect for Layla's boundaries, but her fingers itched to straighten her piles of books and organize her knick-knacks.

It was evening when the door to the apartment burst open.

Layla rushed inside, not bothering to turn on the light. Holly had opened the curtains, and the setting sun's faint light bathed Layla's brown skin with a soft golden radiance. But the real light was in Layla's eyes as she walked, trancelike, toward Holly.

"Layla," Holly said, her voice thick with emotion. "I—" She didn't know how to say it all, or any of it.

"I—I heard Lockwood & Co. were at the site of the Fittes disaster," Layla said, her voice trembling. "I asked everyone, but no one—no one knew if you were okay. I tried to get time off to go look for you, but—there was so much mess—and— Oh, Hol, I was so  _worried_ about you!"

"I'm okay," Holly said, smiling. Layla was dizzyingly close to her. She could easily take her hand, kiss her. She looked down at the shorter girl, wanting nothing more than to hold her. "Look, Layla, I'm okay. Even if—" Her voice broke, but she continued: "Even if Fittes is dead and I don't know what's next for me and—"

Then Layla kissed her.

Holly's heart burst with warmth, and she kissed Layla back. She couldn't tell how long they stood together intertwined, but when she opened her eyes again, night had fallen.

"Never scare me like that again," Layla said gruffly, not letting go of her.

"Never, never," Holly agreed, and kissed her again.


End file.
